Hurry hard! New ice game crokicurl debuts in Winnipeg

Crokicurl the new ice game that combines elements ofthe board game crokinole and curling has made its debut in Winnipeg.

What are believed to be the world's first crokicurl games were playedat The Forks on Friday, with more people joining in the new activity Saturday.

• Curling and crokinole collide, creating a new ice game in Winnipeg

"It was a lot of fun," said Cameron Langedock, who brought his wife and son out to play the game. "It's creative and it obviously brings people together."

Kids were watching as players battled it out on the ice. Some, like Langedock, were determined to win.

"It was getting competitive towards the end. You gotta win. I'm not playing just to have fun," he said with a laugh.

Crokicurl is similar to a life-sized version of the board game crokinole in which players take turns flicking small discs across a circular board, trying to land the discs in the higher-scoring parts of the board.

Crokicurl, which uses rocks about the size of curling rocks but made from lighter materials,is played with two teams made up of one or two players, who try to score points by throwing the rock into the centre of the ice, where the highest-scoring circle is.

Langedock has never curled before but said he loves the idea of crokicurl.

"The combination of the two sports is super Canadian," he said.

"All of the comments we've had, no one has once said 'Brrr, it seems so cold' or something," said LizWreford, the principal landscape architect of Winnipeg-based Public City Architecture, which came up with the game.

"It's like they don't even think about the cold anymore. It's not an issue.

"These kind of activities draw so many people," Wreford said.

Anyone who wants to check out the new game can do so until 11 p.m., when the ice closes.

The crokicurl rink is located in the Market Plaza beside the canopy ice rink at The Forks.

Crokicurl is free for anyone to play on a first-come, first-served basis, but people are asked to limit their games to one hour.